Definition:
In semantics and historical linguistics, the loss or reduction of meaning in a word as a result of semantic change. Also known as semantic bleaching, semantic loss, and weakening.
See also:
- Broadening
- Downtoner
- Grammaticalization
- Grammatical Meaning
- Semantic Narrowing
- Semantic Satiation
- Verbicide
Examples and Observations:
- "Related to broadening is bleaching, where the semantic content of a word becomes reduced as the grammatical content increases, for instance in the development of intensifiers such as awfully, terribly, horribly (e.g. awfully late, awfully big, awfully small) or pretty (pretty good, pretty bad . . .)."
(Philip Durkin, The Oxford Guide to Etymology. Oxford Univ. Press, 2009) - "Thing used to refer to an assembly or council, but in time came to refer to anything. In modern English slang, the same development has been affecting the word shit, whose basic meaning 'feces' has broadened to become synonymous with 'thing' or 'stuff' in some contexts (Don't touch my shit; I've got a lot of shit to take care of this weekend). If a word's meaning becomes so vague that one is hard-pressed to ascribe any specific meaning to it anymore, it is said to have undergone bleaching. Thing and shit above are both good examples. When a word's meaning is broadened so that it loses its status as a full-content lexeme and becomes either a function word or an affix, it is said to undergo grammaticalization."
(Benjamin W. Forston IV, "An Approach to Semantic Change." The Handbook of Historical Linguistics, ed. by Brian D. Joseph and Richard D. Janda. Wiley-Blackwell, 2003) - "A common concept in grammaticalization theory is described by a number of terms including 'bleaching,' 'desemanticisation,' 'semantic loss,' and 'weakening' . . .. The general claim behind such terms is that in certain semantic changes something is 'lost.' However, in typical cases of grammaticalization, there is often 'a redistribution or shift, not a loss, of meaning' (Hopper and Traugott, 1993:84; emphasis added . . .). To determine whether a semantic change has involved 'loss,' one must measure the differences between positive specifications of the putative 'before' and 'after' meanings, thus making the claim of 'semantic loss' a falsifiable one. The necessary explicit formulations of meanings involved are seldom forthcoming in existing literature."
(N. J. Enfield, Linguistics Epidemiology: Semantics and Grammar of Language Contact in Mainland Southeast Asia. RoutledgeCurzon, 2003)
Also Known As: semantic reduction, semantic loss, desemanticisation
